Welcome to the Brain and Development Research Center

The Brain and Development Research Center is located in the Psychology department of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Leiden University.

Our center explores the relations between the brain and various aspects of cognitive and social development. A special focus of the center is to investigate how brain development, including changes in function, structure, and connectivity, relates to development of cognitive control, emotions and risk-taking, and social decision-making during childhood and adolescence.

Our research projects aim to examine the fundamental changes in brain function that underlie our ability to anticipate, produce and evaluate complex decisions in daily life. Our goals are to shed light on classic developmental questions related to mechanisms underlying developmental change, with a particular focus on the role of social and environmental influence, such as parent-child and peer interactions, on how brain development takes place.

We participate in the Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), which is an interfaculty center for interdisciplinary research on brain and cognition, supported by the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and the Faculties of Social & Behavioral Sciences, Arts, and Mathematics & Natural Sciences of Leiden University (see www.libc-leiden.nl). Within the LIBC, we are part of the LIBC-Junior hotspot (see www.libc-junior.nl).

News

May 2018: VNOP Best Poster Prize for Mara van der Meulen

Mara van der Meulen has won the VNOP Best Poster Prize! The prize was awarded during the 2018 VNOP Conference in Wageningen, on May 15th. Congratulations Mara!

February 2018: Berna Güroğlu professor!

On February first, Berna Güroğlu has been appointed professor! She was appointed in honor of the 'Johanna Westerdijk Year', which celebrates the 100 year anniversary of Johanna Westerdijk, the first female professor of the Netherlands. Berna specializes in neurocognitive development of social decision-making from childhood to adulthood, and her work has had a profound influence on the field of social development. Congratulations Professor Güroğlu!